Do you think there will be any conversions to Atheism on May 22?

[Taverner]

I can see a few people, sick of being fooled by charlatan after charlatan, suddenly realizing that science has a much better track record at predicting things than a collection of Bronze Age fables, just going "I GIVE UP!" and joining our little group :)

[Motown_Johnny]

1. No, anyone close to doing that doesn't believe this May 21st crap

[Jackpine Radical]

2. I'm looking forward to an influx of new pagans.

[Taverner]

5. We should start a "Greater Disappointment Outreach Center"

Where we minister to the lied to and deceived.

Show them the value of statistical analyses, probability waves and standard deviations.

Then help them file a class action suit against the Family Network

[MineralMan]

3. There's no such thing as a conversion to atheism.

You either can believe or you cannot. If you cannot, you are simply an atheist. It's not a conversion. It just is.

[Taverner]

6. OK, then a DEconversion...

[Fumesucker]

12. Deconversion stories are very common..

http://de-conversion.com/tag/de-conversion-story/

Losing your faith can be a wrenching process and it's quite possible to lose your entire social network and family in doing so.

[MineralMan]

16. Or it can be something of little consequence, as it was for me.

I simply discovered in 1965 that it was impossible for me to believe in the existence of supernatural entities of any kind. Nothing else happened. I simply stopped believing. It affected nothing else in my life, which continued as before.

[Jackpine Radical]

4. Ever read Festinger's book When Prophecy Fails?

Fascinating study of what happens to the True Believers at times like this.

[jp11]

7. I figure for those that believe finding themselves still here means they

weren't good enough, and if it is found/proven to them that no one 'got away' then no one is good enough. How then do they deal with that, as any person does, each according to their own strengths of character.

[I hate liars]

8. If you're hoping for that outcome...

...we might as well wish for a rip in the time-space continuum, because that's what it would take to shake turn all that fairy dust to real dust...

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. Is all of the US talking about this, or is it just DU?

It's amazing how one kook has got so many people to pay attention to him. Even if it is just DU.

[nadinbrzezinski]

31. Actually they are the joke on multiple places

daily show was HYSTERICAL last night.

[FiveGoodMen]

10. Probably not...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hJQ18S6aag

[TheMightyFavog]

11. No, but I do predict some very BAD, possibly tragic things happening.

If this little group gets away without having at least one of its members have a serious psychotic break, I will be surprised.

[Jackpine Radical]

17. How will you tell?

[TheMightyFavog]

21. I'm sure if anything like that ever went down, it would be all over the news.

They'd eat up a story like that.

[Jackpine Radical]

22. But what does a psychotic break look like in someone

who's already a raving loony?

[TheMightyFavog]

28. Goes from ranting and raving about the rapture to murder/suicide?

I think that would be a start.

[Taverner]

32. Wasn't Jim Jones expecting god to come down and save the People's Temple

And when he didn't, that's when they started with suicide plans?

[Fuzz]

13. What is that conversion ceremony like?

I missed the whole thing. Is there a party where people bring gifts and money? I don't have to get a body part cut off or anything, do I?

;)

[MountainLaurel]

14. Nah, these folks are too far gone

They'll believe that the Lord would have come back if only they had prayed harder and given more money.

[TheKentuckian]

15. Maybe but the number of people that really believe this business has got to be tiny.

The entire deal is counter scriptural. No man knowing the day or the hour is hard to interpret as this guy knows what he is talking about, even from that point of view.

Probably be more suicides than conversions.

[pipi_k]

18. No...

I honestly think it will make them even MORE obstinate in their beliefs.

Hard to fathom, I know, but...

:shrug:

[AsahinaKimi]

19. I can see them converting to Frustration

Which might be kinda fun to watch. :evilgrin:

[and-justice-for-all]

20. Well, nothing is going to happen...

unless they have a suicide pact and pull a Heavens Gate.

[Lyric]

23. I'm just praying that the crazies don't go all Jonestown Heaven's Gate and kill their kids.

I just want those innocent kids to survive their parents' disillusionment.

[Kievan Rus]

24. They'll probably form a new church, like what the Millerites did in the 19th century

[mitchtv]

25. some apostasy, maybe

but little de conversion

[MyshkinCommaPrince]

26. One can hope!

I expect that this will drive moderates away from the religious crazies, for a time. The crazies themselves will remain unshaken by anything that doesn't happen. If anything, their reliance on their belief system will be strengthened.

[backscatter712]

27. It may encourage closet-atheists.

Maybe it would have the same effect as the "You know God doesn't exist" billboards put up by the American Atheists & such - they're targeting "closet atheists" and encouraging them to come out of the closet, which would hopefully bring atheism into wider acceptance.

Hopefully, the widespread ridicule of the May 21 rapture beliefs will do some of the same thing - when everyone's making fun of the people who thought they would be raptured, maybe a few closet atheists will take those first tentative steps out...

[Name removed]

29. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Warren DeMontague]

30. Nah, they'll change the channel to a different brand of wack-a-doo fundy Xtianity.

No way will any of them make the leap to skepticism, science, and critical thinking.